


For the Greater Good

by duc, Redrikki, thendstartsnow



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-23 15:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,716
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12510544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duc/pseuds/duc, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redrikki/pseuds/Redrikki, https://archiveofourown.org/users/thendstartsnow/pseuds/thendstartsnow
Summary: Count Dooku has never seen the appeal of Anakin Skywalker, but, when the Chosen One breaks with the Council over the treatment of the clones, he decides acquiring the boy's allegiances might be worthwhile after all.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Began based on the [ anonymous prompt](http://redrikki.tumblr.com/post/165304281874/schism-in-the-jedi-order-with-several-jedi):
> 
> "Schism in the Jedi order with several Jedi refusing to become soldiers. It becomes highly publicized in the republic and Dooku is very interested. Maybe Obi Wan and Anakin obey the council until Anakin no longer can. Dooku's just like if I can have my grand padawan I'll have my great grand padawan :) "
> 
> From there [grand-duc](grand-duc.tumblr.com) and [thendstartsnow](thendstartsnow.tumblr.com) hopped on and it was off to the races.

“Skywalker has broken with the Council,” Sidious said, unable to contain his amusement.

“Did he?” Dooku struggled to sound interested. He never understood his master’s fascination with the boy. Skywalker might be the Chosen One, but it was Kenobi who was the real prize. Mature and seasoned, his padawan’s padawan was the perfect Jedi and everything that reckless child was not. “I can’t imagine he joined the pacifists.”

At the start of the war, a small number of Jedi, lead by former Councilwoman Depa Billaba, had refused to go to war. They felt becoming officers and commanding clones was a violation of the spirit of the Jedi Order. Yoda and his ilk had, of course, disagreed. The Order had tried to keep the news under wraps so, when Sidious eventually leaked it to the press, it was a huge blow for Republic morale. Dooku found it rather hard to believe that Skywalker had thrown his lot in with them. He seemed to enjoy the war too much.

“Not precisely. The incident on Ringo Vinda and the Council’s response was the straw which broke the eopie’s back, but there are other parties vying for his allegiance.”

Other parties meaning him. Dooku narrowed his eyes. If Sidious thought he could simply replace him with this young upstart he was sadly mistaken. Still, Skywalker had proved increasingly difficult to kill. Clearly, Dooku would just have to acquire the boy first. 

*****

When he does manage to see the boy, Skywalker is angry. That in itself is not new. Skywalker has always been a mess of anger and fear under a badly applied coating of Jedi calm and bravado. 

But the… tone of the anger is different. Before, the boy’s anger had actually been very Jedi-like. Shoved in a corner and left to become a festering wound in the subconscious, a drain instead of a strength. Because Force forbid one acknowledge-- but he digresses. 

Now Skywalker burns, a contained, sustained fire aimed at a purpose, not unlike the inside of a reactor. Despite himself, Dooku is interested.

The boy’s hand reaches for his lightsaber, but he doesn’t draw it, just watches wearily as Dooku makes his approach. Yet another thing that has changed.

“You see it now, don’t you, why I left the Order?”

Skywalker frowns. “What do you mean? I’m nothing like you!”

“Oh, but you are. You see the ways the Jedi have failed the galaxy.” Dooku hesitates. His next move is a gamble. Considering what he knows of Skywalker’s history, his next words should win the boy’s allegiance, but not if he recalls the Separatist alliance with Zygerria. Still, it is a risk worth taking. “For me, it was their steadfast refusal to fight slavery.”

His words hit a bulls-eye. Dooku watches as emotions flashes across Skywalker’s face and Force presence. A second later and it is gone, the weariness is back stronger than before.

Skywalker’s feet shift, as if he’s not sure whether to come closer or back away, his eyes don’t leave Dooku’s. He looks like a kicked Loth-cat, Dooku thinks, suppressing a smirk. Wants to believe the extended hand won’t hurt him, doesn’t know if he can afford to trust it. Well, the best way to get a feral animal to come to you was always patience. As such, Dooku keeps himself relaxed and waited.

“The word in the Temple is that you left because of Master Qui-Gon’s death,” is the boy’s eventual parry, “and because you didn’t think the Council took the threat of the Sith seriously enough.”

Dooku has the urge to roll his eyes, and, since it would actually appeal to the irreverence of his current audience, doesn’t suppress it. Temple gossip. Oh, he could well imagined what sanctimonious Jedi had said.

“Qui-Gon’s death was--” how had Sidious put it-- “the straw that broke the eopie’s back. As well as all the proof I needed the Council was never going to change. If one of their sworn enemies reappearing from oblivion to kill one of their own wasn’t enough to prompt them to stop kissing the senate’s ass--” old anger resurfaces and Dooku lets it color his words, it would only make him more convincing-- “and actually do their job, then what hope was there of them even looking at the Outer Rim?”

The air flickers around them, bent by the slight disturbance in the Force caused by the sudden shiver that runs down Skywalker’s back. Dooku feels it distinctly, slowly lifting a eyebrow with deadpan nonchalance. He waits, mentally counting the duration of the boy’s moments of tormented, uneasy indecision. They are already lasting longer than expected, and this is good: the so-called Chosen One would have already snapped back, perhaps violently, hadn’t his words hit the right spot in his mind and opened a breach. He suppresses another sneer, this time a sneer of satisfaction, making sure to keep eye contact with the young Skywalker steady, calm.

“What you think you know about the Outer Rim?” the boy snarls, narrowing his eyes and lowering a gloomy shadow on them. “You haven’t done anything yourself, you and your Sith Lords.”

Oh, such an answer was predictable. The typical attack of a cornered prey, the one you wage when you need more time and you can’t afford to open up yet. Easy to circumnavigate.

“Oh, but we are.” He shoots a cryptic but witty glance at the boy, again in the name of appealing to his curiosity and his confusion, tilting his head to one shoulder. “We are fighting the Jedi and the Republic.”

Dooku modulates his voice masterfully, making it sound as if this simple, terse sentence contained the core meaning of the whole argument, every answer and every solution. He smiles—a soft, vaguely contained, almost awkward smile, perfectly built to be the kind of smile Skywalker would expect to find on a man who’s been his enemy until not long ago.

Anakin stiffens visibly, setting his jaw tight and squeezing the grip on his lightsaber, while he get caught in a whirl of cognitive dissonance.

“You know it. You know that until the old institutions that let slavery live for centuries are in power, it’s impossible to tackle it. You know what the first step needs to be.”

Dooku looks down, lets an audible sigh - designed to be heavy and weary - slip out if his mouth, and waits for his word to sink in the pre-existing fractures and ignite reaction.

Skywalker’s eyes narrow. “You honestly think war crimes and allying yourself with slavers is the way to save the galaxy?”

Dooku represses another sigh. He had been hoping to keep the unpleasantness on Zygerria out of this, but clearly that is no longer an option. It’s not as though he could claim he was aware of their activities, especially since he was there. Still, Anakin’s accusation does open up certain opportunities.

“And yet you personally helped the Republic cement their alliance with the Hutts.” Skywalker’s lips compress into a thin, angry line as his hands curl into fists. Dooku represses his own smile and continues to press his advantage. “You lead their army of slaves.”

The boy actually gasps. It’s probably the first time he’s heard the clone army described as such. Oh, the Republic talked a good game about supporting the troops, but, at the end of the day, the clones were just one more piece of disposable equipment which they had bought and paid for. They were little more than living droids. While Dooku could not have cared less about the clones, it was quite clear that Skywalker did.

“I will free them,” he declares, “just not with _you_.”

Ah, well. It would have been nice if the boy had accepted his initial overtures, but this rejection is not unexpected. They have, after all, been enemies for years by this point and Dooku did cut his hand off. One simply doesn’t throw off years of Jedi indoctrination and loyalty to the Republic after a single conversation. It took years for Dooku to join the Sith. If he plays this right, it will hopefully tell less for Skywalker, but this was merely the opening salvo. Dooku inclines his head and allows Skywalker to depart.


	2. Chapter 2

He keeps a close eye on the boy after that, waiting for the next opening. He’s on Coruscant for a good week to testify in front of the Senate and that is mildly concerning. Dooku has no way to reach him there, while Sidious only has to crook a finger, but it can’t be helped. Amidala and Skywalker’s joint petition to have the clones’ chips removed is rejected, as Dooku knew it was going to be, as anyone with a modicum of common sense knew it was going to be. Dooku hopes against himself it wasn’t the boy’s only plan to free his men, or those clones are doomed.

After that sorry debacle, things seemingly… go back to normal. Skywalker is back with the Jedi - in fact, if Dooku hadn’t heard from Sidious and if Skywalker’s lightsaber hadn’t been absent from his belt in all the hearing broadcasts, Dooku would never have known he had left - and leading the slave army he had hotly sworn to free. _Well that didn’t last long,_ he thinks.

But still, he watches, certain that can’t be the end of it. Two weeks later a new swatch of sliced Republic reports come in, among them a causality report from the 501st latest battle. Dooku frowns. He grabs another datapad and brings up his own officers’ estimates for that same battle. The Republic report is off by a cruiser-class ship, and Dooku is not liking the trooper count either. _Now what is that?_

Chance meetings between the leader of one army and a general of another are tricky to arrange in the middle of a conflict, but thanks to Jedi’s propensity for leading from the front and Skywalker’s impulsiveness, an opportunity arises soon enough.

This time the boy does draw his lightsaber, but his finger merely rests on the activation button, ready to spring into action if necessary, but only if it was. Not entirely back to his old self. Time to poke the beast then. Half grown and excitable as it was, it shouldn’t take much.

“General,” Dooku smiles, with the barest emphasis on the title, “back in command of your … _troops_ … I see.”

Skywalker tenses, but doesn’t bite. “What do you want?”

“I’m disappointed. I wouldn’t have taken you for a coward. What happened to freeing the slaves?”

Skywalker works his jaw, eyes darting left. “We will free them,” he says, jutting his chin defiantly. “When this war is over. We’ll pull them off duty and we’ll remove the chips.”

 _Is that what the Council told him to shut him up?_ Dooku wonders. Outwardly he sneers.

“Oh yes, and they’ll also grant them citizenship, backpay, and a honorable discharge with pension for every clone that wishes to try his luck elsewhere.”

Skywalker grits his teeth. “People are working on it.”

There are many things Dooku can say to that, _if_ he takes the comment at face value. The whole encounter is oddly sedate for Skywalker. His shields are tight. Dooku can’t feel any of the rolling uneasiness, denial, and guilt that should be simmering under the surface. The defensiveness is barely showing in his body language. The boy is actually making a pretty good show of Jedi blankness, here. Not something Dooku would have thought him capable of under duress. For a second he wonders if the council has finally come to their senses and drugged him into submission, but decides to test his second hypothesis.

“You don’t seriously think the Council is going to buy this, are you?”

Skywalker only blinks owlishly at him. It would be easy to accept his seeming cluelessness at face value. Despite his words, Dooku is sure that the Council has. If they were remotely capable of deducing the blindingly obvious, they would have figured out their Chancellor was a Sith long before now. Dooku narrows his eyes and waits for the boy to break under the weight of his gaze. 

A long, tense silent ensues. Dooku is well aware of his own advantage. He may not be able to directly sense the conflict and creeping anxiety no doubt bubbling just inside Skywalker’s skin, but he _knows_ it’s there. Still, the young general is hiding it intriguingly well.

The only irregularity he detects under the boy’s near impenetrable veneer of calm is a sense of progressively increasing fatigue, tiredness. It is as if all his energy is being channelled in holding the grip on his indecipherable mask. Dooku has come to know very well the devastating intensity of Skywalker’s emotions and, to be sure, it must be stressful, weakening work to keep them under such a tight, comprehensive control, especially in an hostile, potentially threatening situation like this. That would certainly account for his weariness. _Good_ , he thinks, _a strained mind is easier to control._

Despite his best stern, paternal glare, honed by years of training Qui-Gon Jinn, the boy does not break. Dooku sighs, and tries a different tactic. “Well, I have to assume you do think so. Quite bold, I’ll give you that. Naive, but bold.” He nods, his eyes half-closed. “Let me guess: you believe they might not notice, as long as you keep your position as general and let them use you and send you to the front lines any time they need your strategical skills. Correct?”

A flash of pain. A tiny fracture, a minuscule wound in Anakin’s facade, like a whole left by the quick of a needle. _Disillusionment always makes its strike._ But the quick flash is all Dooku gets.

“Your sudden interest in me is flattering, Dooku,” Skywalker says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’d say it’s surprising, but, oh wait, it’s not. I may be naive, but I know when someone is trying to use me.”  
Now there’s a laugh. Does the boy honestly think Sidious merely enjoys his company? It’s all Dooku can do not to roll his eyes. “I see there is no fooling you,” he says, pleased with his own ability to maintain a straight face, and advances into the Skywalker’s personal space.

The boy reacts predictably, stepping back and raising his weapon into a fighting stance. Dooku smiles mockingly and spreads his empty hands. Skywalker may have broken with the Council, but he is still too much of a Jedi to attack an unarmed opponent. His jaw clenches as he first lowers, then disengages his blade with obvious effort. 

Dooku takes another slow, deliberate step forward to remind Skywalker just who has the upper hand in this conversation. “Now,” he says, “why don’t you tell me something about your latest battle report?”

The boy’s eyes narrow, but he says nothing. Silence is far from his usual tactic, but it is proving frustratingly effective. Still, he can’t hold out much longer. The notoriously hotheaded youth is no match for Dooku’s patience. Just a bit more prodding should do the trick. 

“It took me less than five minutes to notice the discrepancies in your report. If I can piece it together so easily, rest assured the Council eventually will.” Dooku isn’t entirely sure what it is that Skywalker is up to, but he finds if that one gives a man enough rope, he’s liable to hang himself with it. It’s an old master’s trick. Act like you know the truth and let your padawan confess to the details. Dooku shakes his head. “You’re too predictable for this, Skywalker,” he tuts.

Skywalker merely smirks, evidently amused by the ploy. “You clearly know nothing about slavery and resistance, Dooku,” he says cryptically. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he adds with a mocking bow, “some of us have a war to fight.”

Dooku lets him go. Holding him here might be temporarily satisfying, but would likely jeopardize his long term goals. Besides, there’s nothing more to gained from this frustrating conversation. The boy wants to be uncooperative? Maybe then it’s time Dooku lends the Jedi Council some help identifying their little trouble maker. Their crackdown will do his work for him. By the time they’re through, Dooku will seem like the only reasonable alternative.


End file.
